The present invention relates to a method for the preparation of sorbic acid or, more particularly, relates to a method for the preparation of sorbic acid by the activity of a specific microorganism on 2,4-hexadienal.
The thus obtained sorbic acid can be utilized in the field of food industry as an antiseptic acd the like, and also is useful as a starting material of synthetic resins and others.
In the preparation of sorbic acid, formation of by-products is unavoidable when 2,4-hexadienal as the starting material is oxidized in a procedure of organic chemistry. Therefore, a procedure of purification is indispensable in order to obtain sorbic acid of high purity while the procedure is troublesome and sorbic acid having a desired purity can be obtained only with difficulty.